Apple will be opening Europe’s first app development centre in Italy, partnering with an institution in Naples to deliver specialised iOS app development training. The press release from Apple isn’t big on details, but says Apple will be working with partners all over Italy to deliver complementary curriculum in order to create additional opportunities for students. Whatever this means, this can only be a good thing for the app ecosystem.
Over at Daring Fireball, John Gruber discusses why Apple assembles in China. In light of recent comments from presidential candidate Donald Trump, a number of outlets have attempted to explain why many companies manufacture goods in China, which comes down to both comments from Apple CEO Tim Cook about the focus of the Chinese education system, as well as factories not being an overhead for Apple.
Along with bringing bug fixes and the speed, iOS 9.2.1 also resolves a security issue that meant hackers were able to impersonate users using unencrypted cookies.
References to Li-Fi have been found in iOS code, pointing to Apple may be at least experimenting with the super-fast protocol that is many times faster than Wi-Fi, but requires line-of-sight between devices.
With Swift quickly becoming one of Apple’s biggest focuses, it’s clear that the programming language is going to be around to stay. Swift is leading developer adoption, but inside Apple, it’s a different story, with Swift being more of a “nice to have” rather than a cornerstone feature of new projects.
App Annie’s latest report tells us that although the Google Play Store has an advantage over Apple’s App Store when it comes to sheer downloads, the App Store brings in 75% more revenue despite the difference in downloads.
MacStories reviews Timepage, which is a different kind of Calendar app that presents your day in an unique way.
Microsoft has updated their Office apps on the iOS platform, bringing support for the Apple Pencil. Better inking, drawing, and annotation tools also mean that transitioning from typing input to annotations using a stylus is now more seamless.
Server Density’s post on launching an Apple TV app has some explanation on a number of tvOS things to look out for, as well as tips on the development process itself.
From the Layers design conference, comes a video of Susan Kare discussing her history with Apple and icon design, as well as talking to John Gruber about design.
Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2016/01/friday-morning-news220116/